John C. Holmes

John Curtis Holmes (8 August 1944-13 March 1988) was a legendary American adult film actor who was credited in at least 537 films, and who was said to have slept with over 14,000 women. Holmes was a legend during the 1970s, but he degenerated into a drug addict and criminal, taking part in the Wonderland murders of 1981 as Eddie Nash's associate. He died of AIDS in 1988 after being acquitted of murder.

Biography
John Curtis Estes was born in Ashville, Ohio on 8 August 1944, and he was raised as "John Holmes" by his devout Southern Baptist mother and his alcoholic stepfather. Holmes enlisted in the US Army at the age of sixteen with his mother's permission, serving in West Germany for three years as a Signal Corps soldier. He was honorably discharged in 1963, and he took nurse Sharon Gebenini as a wife in 1965 while working as an ambulance driver. In April 1965, he became a forklift driver at a meatpacking warehouse in Cudahy, California.

Adult film career
Holmes later found his true calling when he entered the adult film industry, using his physical talents to become a star; he had exceptionally large and thick genitalia. In 1971, he began to star in the "Johnny Wadd" adult film series, and he made $3,000 a day with his job. Due to the dubious legality of pornography, Holmes was charged with pimping and pandering, but he avoided jail time by working as an informant for the LAPD, being handled by vice detective Billy Ward. By 1978, his consumption of cocaine and freebasing had become a serious problem, as it affected his ability to maintain an erection. To support himself and his drug habit, Holmes ventured into crime by selling drugs for gangs, becoming a prostitute for both men and women, by committing credit card fraud, and by engaging in petty theft. In 1976, he forced the 15-year-old Dawn Schiller into prostitution and often beat her, although she became his domestic partner; Holmes became estranged from his wife, who saw him as a "whore" due to his selling of his body.

Wonderland murders
In late 1980, Holmes was introduced to Odyssey nightclub owner Chris Coxx, who then introduced Holmes to drug dealer and nightclub empire owner Eddie Nash. Holmes also became an associate of the Laurel Canyon-based Wonderland Gang, frequently selling drugs for the gang. In June 1981, he failed to sell a pair of Ron Launius' antique pistols to Nash for the gang, and Nash kept the guns; in exchange for his life, Holmes was forced to assist the gang in robbing Nash's mansion. An angry Nash threatened to kill everyone in Holmes' address book, starting with his mother, unless he helped Nash with wiping out the Wonderland Gang. Holmes got Billy Deverell to buzz him into the gang's Wonderland Avenue rowhouse, and Greg Diles and another hitman used striated led pipes to savagely beat the gang members to death. Diles then forced Holmes to kill Launius, and Holmes cracked his head open with his blows, taking out his anger on him. Holmes refused to cooperate with the investigation into the "Wonderland murders", and he was never convicted of murder; instead, he was convicted of contempt of court. He died of AIDS in Los Angeles in 1988, with investigators attempting to interview him about the murders until shortly before his death.